Hunter Greene struck out 12 New York Mets on Sunday while helping lead the Cincinnati Reds to a 3-2 victory that handed them the series win over their NL Wild Card rivals. The win inched Cincinnati back over the .500 mark at 72-71 and brought them within 4 games of a real, live playoff spot – something that gives us just enough of a glimmer of hope to not completely slam the door shut on this season.
Yet.
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Greene’s excellence has seen his season numbers rise to simply elite territory, too. His combination of high strikeouts and career-best unwillingness to walk batters has shown a true sense of refinement, and the names that pop up next to him on MLB leaderboards is beginning to reflect that, too.
His 11.26 K/9 ranks 5th among the 128 pitchers who have logged at least 90 IP so far this season, behind only the likes of Seattle’s Logan Gilbert, Philly’s Zack Wheeler, Atlanta’s Chris Sale, and San Diego’s Dylan Cease. Reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal ranks right behind him, as does Boston ace Garrett Crochet.
Greene has also managed to pitch his way over the plate well enough to crack the top 10 in lowest BB/9 in that group, too. His 1.89 BB/9 ranks 10th, just ahead of former Reds All-Star Sonny Gray – and both Zack Littell (1.52, 4th) and Nick Lodolo (1.67, 5th) are in that top 10, too.
It’s both an indication of just how brilliant Greene truly is and an indictment on how much the Reds missed him while he was again shelved this season. The Reds got their ace back for the stretch run, of course, but it remains to be seen whether he can impact the team enough in this short run to help push them over the edge and into playoff contention again.
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In other news, the Chicago Cubs have signed former Cincinnati leadoff man and base-swiper extraordinaire Billy Hamilton to a minor league deal. Said deal apparently went down before the September 1st deadline to add players that will retain eligibility for postseason rosters, which shows that the Cubs have a pretty clear idea that Billy could be a perfect pinch-runner and defensive replacement on a playoff roster. He’s in Arizona ramping up after having been basically out of baseball all year, but there’s a chance we could see him in a playoff dugout in a month, which is cool.
The Atlanta Braves claimed Alexis Diaz over the weekend, something that’s a bit odd on the surface for a club that’s out of contention altogether. Their idea, I suppose, is to see if they can fix him at all in the season’s final three weeks to make tendering him a contract at all for 2026 worthwhile, something that seems all but a foregone conclusion after his disastrous season to date. Or, rather, impress him enough to make him want to resign with that organization even after a non-tender.
Finally, former Reds manager and longtime big leager Davey Johnson died on Friday. He was 82 years old, and managed the Reds back in 1995 during their last actual playoff success. That ‘95 club likely holds outsized distinction in the memories of Reds fans of my generation due to the complete and utter lack of any success by the franchise since then, but on its own it was a fantastic conglomeration of brilliant players managed by Davey that was jst about as awesome to watch as you could imagine. RIP to an icon of the 1990s Reds franchise.